


A Wyvern's Tail

by Sheogorath



Category: Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling
Genre: AR, Adoption, Bonding, Gen, Natural Animagus, Sevitus, Snape Adopts Harry, accidental magic, genre blending
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-01-14
Updated: 2014-01-15
Packaged: 2018-01-08 18:15:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1135863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheogorath/pseuds/Sheogorath
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After miraculously surviving the car crash in which his relatives die, Harry Potter is adopted by the Potions Master everybody loves to hate. Albeit not in the usual way!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [A Panther's Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/34518) by Copper Vixen. 



> A.N.: In case anyone's wondering, the 'misspelling' of the word 'tale' in the title of this fic is quite deliberate, for reasons I'm sure you can understand.

## Chapter One.

### Wyvern

### M.O.M. Classification: XXX

Long thought by most wizards and witches to be a smaller cousin of the dragon, it is now believed that the wyvern is simply a species of it that traded in physical size and strength for greater intelligence, and high magical defence for magical strength and ability.

Because of its much lower aggression in comparison to other dragons, along with its almost human intellect, this creature makes an ideal and tractable familiar for those with the patience to train them. However, the wyvern's increased intelligence also makes it quite high-maintenance as it can easily become bored, and is extremely destructive when it has little to do. Many a witch or wizard has lost a valuable library to the teeth and claws of these highly inquisitive and now critically endangered creatures, and adolescent wyvern familiars have occasionally burnt down the dwellings in which they lived as a result of fascination with the jets of fire they are able to produce.

Unusually for dragons, the maturation rate of a juvenile wyvern is identical to that of a young magical human, possibly as a result of a brain which develops more slowly than those of larger dragon species, but like all other dragons, the wyvern is capable of living for several centuries under ideal conditions.

Resembling the Common Welsh Green in shape and exhibiting similar colouration to the Hebridean Black, though a tenth of the size of either, the few wyverns left in existence can now only be found bonded as familiars to those witches and wizards who have not had them destroyed because of their destructive tendencies.

Entry on the Wyvern from 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' by Newt Scamander. Omitted from the thirteenth edition due to the wyvern's extinction.

✱   ✱   ✱

The tank of the Dursleys' Volvo must have fractured on impact, because when a spark from the small fire that had sprung up fell by the thin stream of clear fluid which flowed from the back of the vehicle, flames raced and the entire thing exploded, its unconscious passengers being incinerated in the torturous heat. Harry Potter, who had been flung clear of his relatives' car when it struck the crash barrier, turned his attention from the inferno as a lorry bore down on him, the panic on its driver's face somehow clear to him even without his glasses, which had got lost somewhere, and he frantically squeezed his eyes shut as he futilely prayed to an obviously deaf God to be taken somewhere safe.

Once his vehicle had finally stopped, the lorry driver got on his radio and called in the accident, saying nothing about what had clearly been a fright induced hallucination of a small boy in clothing far too big for him, lying helplessly on the tarmac of the motorway.

✱   ✱   ✱

Arriving back in Spinner's End from a shopping trip, Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, shut his front door and went straight to the kitchen to put away the food he'd bought before taking the bag of potions ingredients down to his basement, where he had a small but fully equipped laboratory. Immediately he was at the bottom of the bare wooden staircase, however, he put the bag down, then approached the small baby dragon lying in the middle of the floor.

Although the dragon seemed to be asleep, it opened its eyes as Snape approached it, watching him warily, but making no moves as he stretched a hand towards it. However, as soon as the Potions Master touched it, it clawed at him, loudly creeling as it did so.

"Why, you little...!"

Dropping the hand he'd raised in self-defence, Snape wondered why the creature wasn't attacking him further, then realised it was injured and in pain, which was probably why it had struck out at him in the first place. Without further ado, Snape returned upstairs and went to his fireplace to summon the one person who might be able to help.

✱   ✱   ✱

With casts on its body and one foreleg, and a bandage on one of its hindlegs, the miniature dragon was hungrily tucking into a bowl of corned beef that had been provided to it after it had turned its snout up at the best diced lamb.

"I was hoping to eat that on sandwiches tomorrow, you little pest!" Snape growled.

"Now, now, Sev'rus. He can' help it if he doesn' like his meat raw like wyverns are supposed ter do," Hagrid responded. "I can take him ter me hut if yeh don' want him to eat _yer_ food."

"Do you honestly believe that I asked you to help me heal the creature only to allow you to kill him by moving him while his injuries are still so severe?" Snape asked sardonically.

Turning away to hide a grin, Hagrid gave no answer to the obviously rhetorical question.

"Anyway, what should I call him?" Snape continued. "I can hardly keep calling him just 'wyvern', he needs a name that's distinct."

"Well, I'd say tha's up ter yeh if yer goin' ter keep him," Hagrid replied, "or I can ask a friend o' mine ter take him ter the dragon sanctuary. He'll always be small enough ter make a good familiar, though."

"A familiar?"

Hagrid nodded. "Wyverns are highly magical creatures. Not magical in the same way as dragons, mind yeh, yeh can hurt 'em with just three combined spells, but if yeh invoked the Familiar Bond, yeh'd have access ter a nearly inexhaustible source o' power durin' a wizardin' duel."

"What about it?" Snape asked the wyvern. "Do you want to stay with me and become my familiar?"

The creature gave a soft chirp of confirmation. He liked the idea of staying with the kind man in whose house he'd found himself.

"Well, I'd best be gettin' on with me duties," Hagrid said. "There is one thing, though."

"What's that?" Snape asked.

"This young feller can' be much more than five years out o' the egg, but wyverns went extinct when I were a boy."

With that, Hagrid stepped into the green flames, called out his destination, and then was gone.

For nearly an hour, Snape struggled to come up with a suitable name for his new companion, finally settling on the rather pedestrian-sounding Midnight. However, Midnight himself seemed pleased enough with his new name, chirping excitedly when it was announced. Sighing, Snape was just leaving the living room to go down to his laboratory and finally put his potions ingredients away, when another creeling sound brought him back.

"What? What is it? Are you still hungry? Are you bored? That's it, isn't it? You're bored."

With that, Snape switched on the portable TV he rarely watched, pleased when Midnight almost instantly became absorbed in the images on the screen, making no sound when the Potions Master left the room again.

✱   ✱   ✱

After his supper and a shower, Snape had just changed into a nightshirt and was about to climb into bed when a sorrowful creeling began echoing through the house. After throwing on his dressing gown and stepping into his slippers, the Potions Master went downstairs to the living room, turned the TV back on, and made to leave the room again, only to be halted by the resumption of the creeling.

"What is it _now_ , you blasted creature?" Snape snarled, then paused when he caught sight of the expression in Midnight's eyes. "Oh, so you're lonely? Come on then, but you had best be quiet for the rest of the night or you'll be sleeping outside."

Having said this, Snape picked up the frame in which Midnight was immobilised while his fractured vertebrae healed, and carried it up the stairs to his bedroom. Once the frame was set down again, he removed his slippers and dressing gown, then finally climbed into bed.

"Remember," the Potions Master warned, "one peep out of you..."

Midnight couldn't care less about the unfinished threat. He was going to sleep in a real bedroom for the first time in his life, albeit not in an actual bed, and he wouldn't have to be alone like he always was in his cupboard, either!

For the next several minutes, all Snape could hear from Midnight were contented chirps and warbles, and the soft sounds gradually lulled him to sleep.

✱   ✱   ✱

After getting up the next morning, Snape grilled sausages and bacon, and boiled some eggs, then cut them up into a bowl which he put in front of Midnight, whom he'd carried into the kitchen, before pouring himself a bowlful of cornflakes and milk. After washing up the breakfast things, he picked up the immobilisation frame to carry it into the cellar, then he heard his fireplace burst into life with green flames.

"Ah, Severus," the head of Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts said as it appeared in the fire. "I hoped I might find you. Will you come through, please? I have some rather bad news, I'm afraid."

"Yes, well, your news will have to wait. I'm rather busy with this creature, who can't be left on his own for any amount of time."

His attention having been drawn to Midnight, Dumbledore breathed, "A wyvern! But they've been extinct for at least fifty years."

"So Hagrid told me after he helped me treat Midnight's injuries."

"Well, you're absolutely right that a wyvern can't be left alone," Dumbledore chuckled. "Highly destructive little things when left to their own devices for too long, which is part of why they are officially extinct. So, I'll see you when you're ready, and I hope to meet your new companion then."

Once Dumbledore was gone, Snape was finally able to carry Midnight to the cellar, where he cast the simple diagnosis spell he'd cast the day before for Hagrid's benefit, being pleased to note that all of Midnight's injuries were fully healed. Accordingly, he took the wyvern out of the immobilisation frame and removed his dressings, then allowed him a few minutes to get used to his legs again before pouring a potion into a clean mortar and setting the heavy vessel on the floor. Midnight sniffed at the liquid curiously, then gave a creel of pure disgust at the smell.

"Now, Midnight, you need to drink that. You do want to be the proper size so people don't think you're only five years old instead of eight, don't you?"

Rather than drink the disgusting fluid, the wyvern creeled again.

"I tell you what, if you drink the potion, I'll get you some milk to wash away the taste with."

Midnight twitched his head in interest at the offer, but then curled up on the floor with his back to Snape. He'd been offered treats before, but only good boys got them, not good-for-nothing freaks like him, and he knew better than to expect to actually be given anything he was offered except punishment for his freakish tricks.

Sighing heavily, Snape left the cellar, soon coming back with a bowlful of milk, which he placed on the floor beside the mortar, and the wyvern immediately got up and came over to sniff at it.

"No, Midnight. Potion first, _then_ you can drink the milk."

Midnight warily watched the Potions Master and made no further move until Snape, somehow recognising some of his own childhood behaviour being displayed by the creature, moved away a couple of feet. Instantly, Midnight slowly drank the nutrition potion, creeling in distress as he did so, then dashed over to the bowl of milk and began gulping it down like he was dying of thirst.

"Slow down, you silly creature! I'm not going to take that away from you, and you'll only make yourself sick if you drink it so quickly. I'd have to give you more of the potion if that happened."

Much to Snape's surprise, Midnight immediately slowed the rate at which he was swallowing, but still drank the milk fairly rapidly, licking his scaly lips once he had done the same with the bowl. He then went over to Snape and rubbed his head against the wizard's leg in gratitude.

Reaching down to caress the wyvern's head in return, Snape murmured, "Good boy. Very good boy," then he said out loud, "Well, it's time to go and see what Dumbledore has to say. Come along." Saying this, the Potions Master scooped Midnight into his arms and went upstairs to his fireplace, threw in a handful of floo powder, then announced, "Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts," before stepping into the green flames.


	2. Chapter Two

## Chapter Two.

Arriving at his destination, Snape put Midnight down, then watched as the wyvern went straight over to Fawkes' perch and began chirping and warbling at the phoenix, who trilled back in return. After then saying hello to Dumbledore in his unique fashion, Midnight began to look at all the fascinating shinies in the room while the wizards talked.

"So, what is this bad news you have to tell me, Albus?"

"The worst news there is, I'm afraid," Dumbledore answered, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "It seems that Harry Potter is dead."

"What? But how?"

"The car that he and his relatives were travelling in was involved in a single vehicle collision on the M1 motorway yesterday, and burst into flames. The lorry driver who called in the accident was unable to get anywhere near it with the fire extinguisher from his cab, and by the time the muggle emergency services were able to get the fire under control, all that was left of the bodies were burnt fragments of bone, none of which have been able to tell us anything more."

"Well, what if Potter was thrown clear of the car as it crashed? Stranger things have happened."

"In which case he would have been found by someone, and I would have heard about it, no matter which side that person was on, nor in which world they lived. No, my boy, Harry Potter has unfortunately died. On his birthday, too. I wish it were otherwise, because now I must make new plans to try to win the eventual war without the one best hope our side had."

"I see," Snape said, then he started as Midnight landed a little heavily on his lap, folding his wings away before rubbing his head against the Potions Master's chest. "How did you know what I needed, little one, hmm?"

"Oh, wyverns were always highly empathic creatures with those they liked best. Looks like you have a highly faithful friend there."

"That should make this easier, then."

"What's that, my boy?"

"I wish to form a Familiar Bond between Midnight and myself. He does not seem averse to the idea."

"Did you ask him?"

"I know of no special way to ask him, and Hagrid didn't tell me of one, so I just came straight out with it. Midnight seemed able to understand me, strangely enough, and made a sound of agreement."

"Yes, from what I remember of them, wyverns were also extremely intelligent. That's why you shouldn't leave yours on his own for too long. They were so bright that they would easily become bored, and often wreaked havoc on their surroundings for want of something to do. That's how they became endangered in the first place, the sheer amount of them that were disposed of after just such an occurence, and I _had_ thought them to be extinct until I saw the little chap on your knee. That's why I fought so hard for the laws protecting dragons and other endangered magical creatures, so they won't follow the wyverns."

At some point during Dumbledore's speech, Midnight had hunkered down on Snape's lap, and by the end of it, he was visibly trembling.

"Hey, it's all right. Since I will never leave you on your own to wreck my home, I shall have no reason to kill you. Understand?"

Uncurling himself, Midnight let out a ripple of excited chirps as he again rubbed his head on Snape's chest, and the wizard chuckled quietly as he gently stroked the top of it.

"So, Severus, are you sure that you want to enter into a Familiar Bond with Midnight?"

"I have never been more certain of anything in my life."

Just then, Fawkes sent out a series of trills, to which Midnight replied in his own way, then the phoenix trilled at Dumbledore.

"Fawkes just explained in greater detail what a Familiar Bond entails to Midnight, and he became even more determined, so we can go ahead."

During the short and simple ceremony, Snape cut his palm and Midnight's shoulder with the Diffindo spell, then pressed the two wounds together while repeating words that the headmaster chanted, the wyvern chirping and warbling in time with the rhythm of them. After that, the Potions Master quickly healed the cuts with Episkey before Dumbledore spoke again.

"Now, the bond is nearly complete, but you won't feel the link yet. So might I suggest you purchase a bonding collar for Midnight? Diagon Alley may have some for you to look through."

"Thank you for the suggestion, Albus," Snape said, then he picked up Midnight, who warbled a goodbye to Fawkes, and left through the fireplace.

✱   ✱   ✱

Arriving at the Leaky Cauldron, Snape heard Tom, the bartender, call out, "All right there, Professor Snape? Who's your friend?"

"This is Midnight, my new familiar," Snape answered, putting the creature down, and Tom gasped as he saw him.

"A wyvern? But those are extinct, aren't they?"

"Yes, well. My days seem to be filled with stubborn creatures who live to break the rules, don't they?" Snape asked, his tone noticeably less sardonic than it would otherwise have been as a smile graced his normally sour face. "Good day, Tom." Saying this, Snape left with Midnight through the back door of the pub.

✱   ✱   ✱

Warbling his happiness, Midnight followed his wizard through the brick archway and down the street, then panicked as his world suddenly turned black.

"Well, well, what 'ave we 'ere, gents? A creature that's supposed to be extinct? You'll fetch quite a pretty penny in the Magical Menagerie," a woman's voice said.

Pretending to be just like any other creature, Midnight held himself still until the cloak that had been flung over his head was taken off, then turned and bit the one holding him. He felt the satisfying crunch of the witch's larynx between his sharp, pointed teeth, then when she fell to the cobbles, gurgling, he literally took flight back to Snape, the rest of the group, all wizards, firing spells after him.

✱   ✱   ✱

After reaching Gringotts, Snape went inside, then panicked when he realised he couldn't hear any warbling or chirping. He frantically looked around, then exited the bank to retrace his steps back to the Leaky Cauldron. He was only halfway back up Diagon Alley when he heard creeling so panic stricken and loud that it was almost screeching, and he looked up to see Midnight flying towards him. He opened his arms, and his familiar dropped into them before turning his head to scold the group of wizards that was chasing him.

"'Ere, that's _our_ wyvern!" one of the wizards shouted.

"Now what leads you to believe that?" Snape asked smoothly.

"It killed our sister!" two of the men said simultaneously.

"Really, and would that be before or _after_ you attacked the bonded familiar of a Hogwarts professor?"

Most of the group grew quite nervous at this, but one of them said, "That creature ain't bonded to no one, it ain't got a bondin' collar."

"Which I shall purchase once I have taken the necessary funds from my vault. Now, _if_ you will excuse me, gentlemen, I must be on my way."

Turning, Snape walked back down the street, and as he did so, he heard one of the wizards behind him say, " _No_ , you fool! If 'e's tellin' the truth about bein' an 'Ogwarts professor, we'll all do time in Azkaban if you attack 'im!"

Smiling at the wisdom that even the stupid were sometimes capable of displaying, Snape carried on to Gringotts, Midnight softly creeling his pain in his arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Copyright © 2014 Romersa's Protégé. Individuals and groups are free to copy and share this work for all purposes except large scale distribution, subject to credit being given and any derivatives being released under the same or a similar licence. All other rights reserved.  
> Published with permission from J.K. Rowling.


End file.
